Catching Up

So obviously I’ve been busy…really, really busy. Much has happened over last few months, so I’ll briefly fill you in. But now that things have slowed down, I’ll be updating more regularly. Promise.

July

The highlight was traveling to Germany for 10 days to attend a scientific conference (and some travel on the side). We had a great time! The conference was really interesting. Who doesn't love the peripheral nerve? ;) Now for the best part, pictures!

We flew into the Frankfurt airport (9 hours on a plane!) and met up with another professor from Kansas. It took us a while to figure out the train system, but eventually we bought our tickets. We hopped on a train that we nearly had to chase down and we were on our way. We grabbed a few open seats only to find out every.single.seat was actually reserved when everyone loaded on at the Frankfurt HBF. Awesome. We stood in the restaurant care for the 1.5 hour ride to Wurzburg.

Wurzburg is a small college town that is really quite pretty.

They have a large winery on the side of a large hill (beautiful view from my hotel room). We took a tour of the fields and a wine house. Now, I actually can say I hate wine. Italy, Greece, California...none have won me over to say I actually enjoy it. In fact, I make a horribly ugly face every time I try it. I didn't expect German wine to make a difference, but boy did it. I LOVED it and I'm pretty sure I drank my body weight over the week we were that. Well...and beer.

We found ourselves a local Beer Garden (at a semi-permanent fair). The Germans were wild! Singing, shouting, and standing on tables for hours. It was awesome. We ended up there quite a few nights with some of the labs we're friends with. Lots of fun. And it is now a fact I can hold a liter of beer using only suction.

After the conference, we traveled down to Munich. I was really impressed with the train system in Germany. Very clean and efficient. Munich was very different than Wurzburg. It was much larger with more hussle and bussle. I really liked it. We didn't do much sight seeing, but did get some pictures around the main part of the city that is mostly only accessible by foot.

While we were in Munich, we traveled to see the concentration camp, Dachau. What a moving experience. I've always been fascinated with the history behind Nazi Germany and always thought it a duty to remember the atrocities that were committed, as do the German people. Each year, German school children are required to tour a concentration camp to hopefully ensure the younger generation would recognize signs earlier and speak out if this were to occur again. I'm glad we took the time to visit and it will definitely be one of my most memorable experiences.

After Munich, we traveled back to Frankfurt for an afternoon before we flew out. Frankfurt seemed to be a mix of very modern and very historic buildings. We ate lunch and walked around the city, but by that time, we were very tired and ready to go home. After a long, long flight (where I was stuck with two people I didn't know on either side of me and one who decided to sit on my leg, no joke), we were back in the US. Germany was very fun and I'd love to go back and spend some significant time sight-seeing.

After getting back from the conference, I got busy very, very quickly. I met with my PhD committee to introduce my project and set a timeline for the preparation of my comprehensive exam. I began writing my 40+ page proposal about my project and studying for the oral comprehensive examination. I've finished all that (to be blogged about later), but I can say it was quite stressful and took a lot of work. I basically fell off the planet for three months. However, I did get a two week break at the beginning of August to go home and spend some time with my family. And that will be tomorrows blog!